After three explosions and a fire in four days, the situation at Japan's earthquake-stricken Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant grew more serious Tuesday, chasing all but a handful of workers from the site and raising fears of a far more dangerous radiation threat.

The latest incidents, an explosion Tuesday at the plant's No. 2 reactor and a fire in a cooling pond used for nuclear fuel at the No. 4 reactor, briefly pushed radiation levels at the plant to about 167 times the average annual dose of radiation, according to details released by the International Atomic Energy Agency.

That dose would quickly dissipate with distance from the plant, and radiation quickly fell back to levels where it posed no immediate public health threat, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano said.

But the deteriorating situation and concerns about a potential shift in wind direction that could loft radiati

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Comment of user 'gregory_peckory' has been deleted by author (after account deletion)!

If anything this is a testament to the safety of the nuclear program. You have a 9.0 earthquake, followed by a massive tsunami.. a 1, 2 punch of massive destructive power, and still no major catastrophic failure.. sure the plant is ruined, what plant wouldn't be in that location given the circumstances. But despite being 40 year old technology, and not even being very "safe" by the industry standards, no massive melt down, no china syndrome.. a huge emergency..

Historically, NucleMore..ar power plants actually have better safety records than any other type of large scale power generation.

Given this this is the "perfect storm" "doomsday" scenario, and no massive meltdown, its kind of hard not to be impressed.Less..

Posted Mar-15-2011 By

Ballistic Midget

The handful of heroes are selfless indeed. They know what they are getting into. all that radiation exposure means they are probably dead men walking, just like the workers at the Chernobyl disaster. Extremely brave, and very tragic that these heroic people are sacrificing themselves to save thousands of others.